The Festival Of Souls
by PrinceOfUchiha
Summary: The Uchiha hold a festival to guide the spirits of their ansestors peace. As the only survivor of the clan, its Sasuke's job to guide the remaining spirits. He takes time off from active duty to prepare for the three day celebration, but it's still a lot to handle. When his team offers help, he knows how to repay them- they have deceased family they'd like to see again, right?


Note: This Uchiha Clan holiday is based on the Japanese Obon Festival. I tried to make it as close to the original as possible while adding in small edits for the story. I mean no offense to the real festival or any who celebrate it-- I just needed a Japanese celebration that could be applied to the Uchiha easily. I tried to make it as close to the mark as possible, but I do make mistakes. So please don't take anything I say in this story as the truth regarding the real festival.

Note: I wasn't in the mood to write a Christmas fic, but I wanted to upload a holiday one since it's Christmas Eve. So, I hope you all enjoy. Merry Christmas to all who celebrate it, and I hope the rest of you have a good day!

Please review if you enjoy or have any *constructive* criticism. I may post a part two or three about the actual tree days of the festival if enough people like it, since I did enjoy writing it. It just depends.

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Naruto hadn't stopped grumbling since they had begun the D-Rank mission, pulling weeds from the village park. Though, getting him to do it at all had been a challenge so Kakashi and Sakura didn't scold him too much out of worry he would stop altogether. "It's not fair Sensei! It's not fair at all. Why are we stuck doing this garbage while Sasuke gets to stay home all week? Couldn't we get a cooler mission at least, like escorting a princess? At least then we'd get to do something fun without him." he scowled.

For what seemed like the millionth time that day, Kakashi gave a sign into his book. "Naruto, I told you. Sasuke isn't off the clock because he's loafing around or simply doesn't want to work. He's celebrating a sacred Uchiha Clan tradition. It would be wrong to force him to come to work on a day that is so important to him, and you know very well a C-Rank is out of the question with only three members of our team available."

Naruto only fumed at this, Sakura giving her Sensei a hesitant glance over the shoulder as she worked. She wanted to ask, but would he tell her? Finally, she decided it couldn't hurt to ask. "Sensei, I didn't know the Uchiha Clan held holiday celebrations, even normal ones that the village takes part in, let alone their own. From what my parents tell me, their clan was pretty cold when it was still around, wasn't it?"

Seeing Naruto look up in question as well, Kakashi shut his book with a thoughtful look. "It is true that most Uchiha didn't enjoy taking part in village festivals, but that doesn't necessarily mean they didn't want to. For a long while, the Uchiha had been disliked by the majority of the village despite being one of the two clans to found it. Because of this rejection, they rarely felt comfortable enough to join in the village festivals. They do have many of their own, however. I suppose you could say they were cold, but I don't think they felt welcome. They know they are welcome in their clan, however, which is why the festivals are so important to them."

Naruto scrunched up his nose in confusion. "But everyone in the village likes Sasuke. He has fans hanging off him all the time, and the adults all gush about how much potential he has when he even walks by. There's no way a guy like that feels unwelcome in this huge village. Besides, wouldn't it be kinda weird to put on a festival for yourself?"

Sakura nodded in agreement. "Not to mention, no one even lives in that huge compound besides him. How could sitting all alone in the middle of a festival feel welcoming?"

Kakashi ran a hand over his face. Why must his students be so inquisitive? "The festival in question isn't for himself nor his particular enjoyment. Most don't know much about it besides the fact it goes on every summer around this time since almost no one has ever been invited to join them. The only reason I know is because I once had a friend in the Uchiha Clan. So in other words, keep this bit of knowledge between us. I'm not sure if Sasuke wants what he's doing to go around, or if it's even supposed to be told. I'm only telling you all because I know you'll push him to answer himself if I don't, and I don't feel like carrying you to the hospital when he gets breaks your rib or something."

The silver-haired man gave Naruto a pointed look. "The celebration is called 'The Festival of Souls'. I don't know the details, but I know the main idea. It's a three-day festival, meant to remember the dead and help them move on to a more peaceful place. The first day involves welcoming the spirits of the dead through various means. The second day is when the actual festival takes place. This is when they celebrate the return of the spirits as well as the lives that were lived by these people. Then finally, the third day is all about telling the spirits goodbye and guiding them on to their next life. At the very end of the third day, the clan takes all the prepared food offerings that had been set out for the spirits and brings them into the village. They go down the streets, staying as long as it takes until every piece of food is given away."

Naruto's eyes widened. "Woah, that sounds kinda cool. I can't believe the Uchiha Clan takes so much effort into making sure the spirits pass on happily. I assumed they were all cold bastards like Sasuke." earning him a knock over the head by his pink-haired teammate.

"Sensei, you said it's a tree day celebration, though. Sasuke took five days off for it. Why is that?" she questioned with curiosity.

The man gave a slight scratch of his neck. "I can't say I know for sure since I try not to ask details when he wants time off for clan affairs. I know it's a sore topic, so I don't bring it up. If I had to guess though, he's most likely working to make all the preparations for the festival. Normally, the entire clan pitches in to make it come together. Now that most of them have passed away though, he seems to have taken doing it all onto himself. This is his first year as a ninja, but he has been doing all the work for the festival since he was six. A week was probably the least amount of time it would take. I'm sure he's working very hard to get them done. We should just be grateful he's trying too hard to get back to us soon." leaning forward to nudge them both towards the weeds. "One way to show our appreciation would be to not ruin the team's name while he's gone by not doing our work." he pointed out.

Both of the younger ninja's surprisingly got to work, not saying anything more of it for a while. Sakura seemed sad at the idea that Sasuke was so hard at work with no help, while Naruto had a plotting look. Kakashi could only hope he wasn't plotting what he thought he was.

His hopes were in vain, however. "Sensei, I've got an idea! When we finish, we don't have a whole lot of work for the next few days anyway. While we aren't working, we should give the bastard some help with setting it up!" he spoke in excitement.

Sakura gave him a scowl. "Naruto, Sensei just said it's sacred to his clan. We are not his clan. Offering to do something like that could offend or upset him. I want to help him too, but we can't just invite ourselves into something like this."

"Actually." Kakashi gave it a thoughtful look. "It's not completely unheard of for others to join in on the festival itself. I once heard the first, second, and fourth Hokage were all invited on multiple occasions. Not to mention a few rare cases of clan friends. I'm by no means saying we invite ourselves to the festival, but if others were aloud in, surely it couldn't be against tradition for us to simply help him set up then leave him to it. I wouldn't mind if we went over to ask after today's mission is done. This isn't the kind of thing we could force ourselves on, though. If he saids no, we accept it. Understood?" using a serious voice, which of course was uncommon for him. Seeing both of them nod quickly in agreement, Kakashi rushed them back to their work. This would be a great chance for them to bond as a team if he agreed, and a good chance to nudge Sasuke towards having more trust in others.

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When Sasuke opened the door, he held an annoyed look on his face. Who was disturbing him? Didn't they see the sign on the front gate which marked him as busy? He wasn't too surprised to see Naruto, having been worrying the fool would come to nag on him for not coming for an entire week. He wasn't too shocked about Sakura either-- he had guessed she might come to check on him as annoying fangirls did. What he hadn't been expecting to see, was Kakashi standing behind them with a warm smile under his mask. He froze momentarily, unsure what they would all be doing at his doorstep. Finally, he got the words out. "What do you all want? Can't you see I'm busy?" doubting anything was seriously wrong with how bubbly they all looked.

He knew he looked busy too-- he had been groaning to himself about it only a few moments before they came. He was wearing his mother's old baking apron with a pair of old white clothes under. He had splatters of flower covering the apron, and a few spots on his body from where he would lean over the counter to get something or slip in a miscellaneous water puddle. His hair was pulled back into a tight ponytail to keep his hair out of the food, revealing his face, which was tired from the hours of planning it had taken to merely prepare for preparing! The small paper cuts littering his fingers from making the lanterns didn't help his appearance either. So they had better have a damn good reason to interrupt him!

Kakashi was surprisingly the one to speak up first. "Sasuke, we came to offer our help with preparing for the festival. We know it must be hard to prepare everything by yourself, and you're probably used to having more than a week to do it too. We won't touch anything you want to be left to yourself, and we'll leave as soon as everything is prepared."

Sasuke had to say, he hadn't been expecting this to be the reason he was interrupted. He took a moment to process this, trying to come up with a good reason to say no. Honestly, he could use the help. He was only on his third batch of the first set of food offerings, and he had a lot more to make if he wanted to leave at least one beside each person's grave. Not to mention, the lanterns were getting more and more difficult to make the more he grew frustrated with the cuts on his fingers. He hadn't even bought the flowers to arrange yet or made the fireworks. He only had two days to get everything ready, plus clean up so the ancestors didn't see the mess and think poorly of him.

He tried to think of why they would want to help, and suddenly the only reason that made sense came into play. He crossed his arms, giving them a cold look. "Don't treat me like a fool. Just because you all help me with this, it doesn't mean I'll pay you back later or give you something in return. I don't have time to bargain, so no." he moved to shut the door with a look of annoyance.

Of course, he felt Naruto hold it open as the blonde gave him a look of disbelief. "You cold bastard! Just because we wanna help doesn't mean we want something from you! What could you have that we would be trying to get?"

Sasuke spoke as if it were obvious. "Sakura's probably just wanting to help to get fangirl points or whatever, which isn't happening because I don't like her," he spoke icily. "You're probably just trying to get free food, or for me to owe you one." he continued. "Then finally, Kakashi is allowing you two to disturb me so that he gets some entertainment." he barked, pushing back on the door in an attempt to close it.

Naruto pushed past him however, having the naturally heavier body and anger to fuel him. Sasuke tripped backward, falling straight onto his behind with a rough thud. Naruto glared down at him as the dark-haired teen stood with an equal scowl. "You act like everything's always a grab for something! We're your team, teme. We're here because we want to help you get done in time without popping a blood vessel! So let us help, for once. No fangirl points, no free food, no 'I.O.U's', and no disturbing you. We'll only help, you have my word as a ninja of the leaf!" he declared, not paying attention as Kakashi tried to tug him outside, where he wouldn't hurt anything in Sasuke's house.

Sasuke didn't want to admit it, but when Naruto made an oath, he always went through with it. Was it possible they didn't want anything in return? He hesitated, but glancing over at the few lanterns he had and many pastries left to fill, he knew the help really would be useful. Clenching his teeth and turning his head a bit to the left, Sasuke held his shaking hands in front of him. It was embarrassing to need the help to take care of his clan, really, but he had no other choice. They had been on so many out of village missions lately that he hadn't had time to preemptively create the lanterns as he had planned. So, swallowing his pride, the teen accepted. "F-Fine. I wouldn't mind having a bit of help this year," he admitted.

This earned him three matching smiles from his teammates, and eyes bright with excitement. "So, what do we need to do, Sasuke-kun?" Sakura asked.

He closed the door, leading them into the kitchen where the pastries were in the oven, and spoke as he checked on them. "Well, I need to go out and buy flowers if someone can take over cooking these while I'm gone. They're already all folded, they just need to be swapped out every twenty minutes and filled up with rotating flavors. I'll also need at least a hundred more lanterns, but those are tricky to make without cutting yourself, so I'll probably have to do that. Those are the two main things. After that, I'll mostly be cleaning up the house and a few things I need to do personally."

Kakashi noted, "I'm not a bad cook, so I should be able to work on the food. I'm assuming you'll just be filling them up with fruit jellies like last year?" having actually gotten one from the boy on multiple occasions as he was out gifting them to the villagers.

Sasuke nodded and turned to Sakura as she began speaking. "I can fold the lanterns. I used to practice a lot of origami and paper arts, plus I can always use my medical jutsu to heal any paper cuts I get. I'm not very good, but I can do that much." she smiled.

Nodding in understanding, Sasuke agreed. "Alright. That should work great then, and the idiot can come with me to carry all the flowers. His shadow clone jutsu will come in handy for that." he spoke, so caught up in his planning he barely noticed as Sakura took his hands to heal him. He glanced at Kakashi, "I only have one apron though, so if you want something to protect your clothes with you'll need to be careful with this one. It's old."

Since Kakashi seemed to agree, he slipped the apron off and handed it over. He patted his shirt down to shake the flower off of it, rinsing his face as well to make himself look at least half-decent. Letting his hair down, he grabbed his wallet from the shelf. "We should be back within an hour if you snoop around you're dead." closing the door roughly without much thought and tugging Naruto down the street towards the villager market center.

Naruto gave a sheepish laugh. "It's kinda weird seein' you in such a rush. You're usually so calm about everything." tilting his head. "This festival thing must be important to you, huh?"

Sasuke grimaced. "Of course it is, idiot. If I don't get everything perfect, my entire family will be looking down on me with disgust. It'll stress them out and make them worry about the future of the clan. Enough of them can't pass on out of stress for the future, I don't need to give them more reason to be forced to stay."

The blonde's head turned sideways at his team mate's words. "It's just a tradition though. It isn't like they'll actually be stuck here if you don't do all this, right?" never having understood the logic of festivals such as these since he hadn't grown up with them.

"It isn't just a tradition. It's important, my clan's souls can't pass on if the living doesn't lead the way with this festival." Sasuke spoke, voice defensive as they entered the flower shop. Seeing Naruto's clueless face, he knew his explanation wouldn't make sense to an outsider. "Urg. I'll explain it back to the house. It's a long story."

Since Naruto seemed content with this, Sasuke turned to the flowers all around them and began picking them up by the handfuls, handing them over to the blonde to hold with his shadow clones. "Let's see...red carnations for the mothers...white roses for the fathers...white carnations for the children...red poppies for the ones lost to war...some iris for helping them all purify..." he murmured to himself, shoving the flowers into the hands of the many clones appearing in the shop. By the time he was done, Ino had stopped sending him flirty looks from the register and was now busy staring at the overwhelming amount of flowers seemingly being bought.

Sasuke came up to the counter, pulling out his wallet, and pulling out a decently sized stack of Ryo. "Here. You can double-check, but I'm pretty sure this is the total." doubting the girl would want to go through all the flowers. He left a big enough tip that it would be obvious it was more than enough.

Ino looked unsure, obviously not wanting to check them all out but also knowing she should make sure just in case. It was then that he heard a light chuckle from behind him. "Ino dear, don't worry about checking all those out. Sasuke's a trustworthy customer."

He glanced behind him to see Inoichi, Shikaku, and Choza. Inoichi sent him a tired smile, and Sasuke gave a polite nod back. The elder blonde motioned over to Naruto, "I see this time around you have some extra manpower? You look a lot less rushed this time-- it's good he's willing to help." he spoke with an approving tone despite his previous weariness of the boy. In recent months, Inoichi had to admit that Naruto had raised the overall view of him quite a bit. He couldn't say he disliked the boy anymore, at least.

Sasuke nodded, allowing for the brief moment of talk since Ino needed a moment to tie the flowers into a more carry easy position. "Yeah, I guess it's good not to have to carry them all," he admitted.

"You don't usually come to this early either-- usually it's the night before your festival that you get a chance. Things must be running smoothly with all those shadow clones to help." he also commented.

A light shrug left Sasuke's shoulders. "Kakashi and Sakura are helping too." a look of remembrance flashing in his eyes. "Oh, and that new material you recommended for the lanterns has done really well, Shikaku. It doesn't scratch up my fingers nearly as much."

The three elder's mentally grimaced as Sasuke so easily called elder people by their first names without even bothering to add an honorific. They had tried to break the boy of the very rude habit years ago, but if Sasuke Uchiha didn't want to do something he simply wasn't going to do it. As such, they had slowly learned to let it go over the years. "I'm glad to hear it, Sasuke. I don't even know how you were functioning with your hands before."

As Ino finished fixing up the flowers, Sasuke made a few clones and took a few as well. Choza questioned with a smile. "I'm glad things are going so well this year for you, but is the jam from this year alright? Was there enough? I only worry because of that ice storm this last winter."

Sasuke waved it off as he took the flowers. "There's more than enough, and it tastes great. I'm sure the villagers will love getting a taste of your clan's special berries for sure. You guys really shouldn't worry so much. I'm fine." heading for the door as he spoke. "Anyway, I'm off. Enjoy your week if I don't see you until I'm back on duty."

He saw them nod and headed out with Naruto, who was giving him odd glances. "What?" he spoke in an annoyed fashion.

"I mean, I didn't even know this thing went on, but you're getting help from like all the adults. Do they give you jam and ideas every year?" he blinked with curious blue eyes.

"Tch, idiot. Of course not. They don't give me anything. I go to their clan houses and pay for their assistance. You saw me pay for the flowers. I do the same for the berries. Then Shikaku would have never mentioned anything if I hadn't paid for one of his talking sessions. They help me because I pay for them. Besides, it's just little things. It's not like the adults are all super involved or anything. It's basic business."

Before they knew it, they arrived at the Uchiha compound. Sasuke headed inside and was relieved to see quite a few more lanterns and pastries were made. The house was still a mess, but that was from him previously running back and forth between cooking and creating the lanterns. It didn't seem like anything had been added.

Sasuke motioned for the clones to set the flowers on the table, and they did. Kakashi and Sakura both gave him a look of recognition as Naruto stretched. "So, I got bastard to tell me why this is all so important. He said the souls of his clan really can't move on without this festival, but he wasn't makin' any sense when he was in a rush. Now that we're in the compound, you should tell us how this all works." leaning on the table.

Sasuke rolled his eyes, pointing to some rice on the shelf that still needed to be made. "Fine, I'll tell you if you want to know so badly, but no laughing." he threatened, not really knowing what their reaction would be. Naruto got set to making the rice, but it was clear all three of his teammates were listening carefully as they continued to work. Sasuke focused on making the flower arrangements to keep his fingers busy as he spoke.

"The Festival of Souls has been an important tradition for just over 100 years. It was created not long after the village, by Madara Uchiha, one of the founders. The story goes like this: Just after the village was created, Madara went to go visit his father's grave. Unfortunately, what he found when he went to visit was not a calm and beautiful resting place. Sharingan users are able to lightly feel the presence of those who have moved on-- this is normal. Madara's Sharingan, however, was on an entirely new level. He was able to see his father, suffering in Preta. He knew his father had been a selfish man, always pushing for more power for the clan. It was no surprise he was there. Even so, it would upset any son to see his father suffering so much."

"In an attempt to free his father from this place, he went to ask Hashirama Senju. Hashirama was his friend, but also a very spiritual person. He told Madara that in order to let his father's soul pass on, he had to give the ninja monks gifts in his father's name. By giving them gifts, his father would receive more positive karma. This would allow him to move on from Preta as he wouldn't be seen as too selfish to be let move on. Madara did this, and it worked. His father's spirit appeared before him, pulling Madara into limbo to give him his final goodbye. It was in limbo that Madara learned why his father had been so selfish. He had been selfish for Madara and his clan's benefit, so they could have a better life."

Sasuke smiled thinly at the story he had heard passed onto him on repeat for five straight years. He could still remember how he had disregarded it as an entertaining story, not caring much past the fact he got to go to the festival with his family. "The clan was so overjoyed at their leader's moving on that they had a celebration in honor of him and the life he had lived for them. The dance that had once been used in the Uchiha clan to celebrate victory after a harsh battle was warped into The Spirit Dance, which is said to help spirits see the joy and devotion in their loved ones and help them move on."

"This has slowly warped over the years, the others in the clan deciding that it would be a good idea to make sure all the spirits passed on since most Uchiha are known to do whatever it takes to keep their loved ones safe. It's why my clan has been seen as greedy and selfish for all these years. We protect our own, even if it costs us our soul." he explained.

Sasuke was glad he was on his last few flower arrangements. Talking about the celebration to others wasn't nearly as hard as he thought it would be. "In today's modern celebrations we have a three-day break, but it takes longer than that to prepare. Usually, the week before the festival is spent deep cleaning the compound and graves. During that time all the Uchiha gather, even those who are away from home or have decided to live far away. They craft lanterns with the clan symbol on it, bake treats and make rice together, and create flower arrangements for their lost ones."

"The first day of the celebration is the calmest. Lanterns are strung up around the house to guide the spirits home, flowers are placed on the graves along with food offerings, and the clan waits for their loved ones to return. Midnight of the first day is the latest any spirits will come. On the second day, the festival is held. It usually has games, party food, and all sorts of lights strung up around. It's meant to give the spirits a warm welcome home. The main event is in the compound's main center, where the dancers go to preform the Soul Dance. The Soul Dance is meant to soothe any restless spirits. Then finally, the third day comes. That's when you have to say goodbye to the spirts. They'll tell you if they're ready to move on to nirvana."

"For all the spirits that are ready to move on, you shoot a firework up into the sky at 11:00 pm to guide them. For the ones who still need time, you light a bonfire and sit with them around it and talk as they fade back into Preta. Finally, at midnight, everyone in the clan goes around the village leaving the extra food on porches. It's meant to give the ones still unable to move on more good karma, just like Madara had to do to free his father." he explained, finishing up the flower pieces.

Naruto and Sakura looked interested, "They'll tell you? How?" the pink-haired girl asked.

Sasuke only rolled his eyes as he sat up. "Using words, how else? I told you, the spirits arrive two days before, so they'll of decided by then."

Kakashi stopped halfway through filling his pastry to look over at Sasuke with honest surprise. "You mean, you actually see the spirits? It isn't just a metaphorical goodbye?"

The teen looked baffled. "What? Of course, they actually come from Preta, I'm not making all this for nothing."

Naruto's eyes widened, all three of Sasuke's teammates having abandoned their work in favor of questioning him. Naruto demanded, "Your clan knows how to talk to the dead? Why wouldn't you do it all year? Why wouldn't you tell the rest of the village how so they could talk to their family too?"

A scowl crossed Sasuke's face. "The village already disliked our clan. If they knew we could talk to the dead, they wouldn't trust us at all. They'd think we were eerie or accuse us of making plans with those already defeated by death. Pulling souls from Preta is difficult, it takes a lot of work. It could easily be misused to speak to the worst kind of people."

Well, Kakashi couldn't argue with that. Naruto looked upset, and Sakura unsure of what to say. Sasuke took a deep breath. He didn't know why Naruto was so upset by this. It was his clan's tradition, what right did he have to criticize it? Sasuke's arms crossed on reflex, taking a few deep breaths and glancing over at his teammate. However, instead of seeing childish bitterness at not understanding, Sasuke was surprised to see a look of deep hurt. Suddenly, it clicked. That was right, Naruto's parents were long dead. Sasuke also noticed Kakashi didn't have his normal bored look to him, instead quietly looking down at the pastries, as if in deep thought.

He got an idea but wasn't sure if he would regret it later or not. As much as he hated to admit it, they had helped and truly wanted nothing in return. They had all been better to him than anyone in a long time, and he had to admit he considered them all close. He bit the inside of his cheek, looking away. "You know-- You could-- I mean I wouldn't mind if you-- wanted to come. To the celebration, I mean. You could make a lantern with the Uzumaki symbol on it. Or-- or the Hatake or Haruno if you wanted to come." glancing hesitantly across his teammates. His face was tinted red, knowing he would look like an idiot if they didn't want to come after all and he had misread the situation.

Luckily for him, he wouldn't have to face such an embarrassment. "I personally would love to join you, Sasuke." Kakashi's voice came with a light warmth, glad his student was slowly opening up to them.

"Oh! Oh! I wanna go too." Naruto quickly agreed. It was a chance to see who his parents had been, after all. He gave a cheeky look, not able to resist the chance to tease his teammate. "I'd like to see what kind of stubborn couple could make someone like you, after all." he joked with a grin.

Kakashi had returned to the foods, not looking up as he sent Naruto and Sasuke a large mental jab. "The acceptance of those close to you is important, but so is the acceptance of their family. Though I'm not sure you two are ready for that step for a while now." seeing the flabbergasted looked Sasuke gave him, and the puzzled one from Naruto, he only smiled in false innocence.

Sakura huffed at Kakashi's joke, choosing to ignore it. "I would like to go too, Sasuke-kun." she agreed.

Sasuke nodded as he heard her words, offering them all a rare smile. He supposed this change wouldn't be too bad.

For the next few hours, they took to painting their symbols on the lanterns, making fireworks, and storing the foods and drinks in the fridge. They had all decided to leave the cleaning for tomorrow, along with the other loose ends that still needed to be tied up. They took great excitement in the upcoming festival, Naruto and Sasuke in particular dreaming of reuniting with their parents that night. Sasuke was so content with the way things had turned out, he didn't even mind it as they all sat in the living room, covered in blankets and munching on the chicken Kakashi had insisted on making for them. Having a team wasn't so bad, Sasuke supposed.


End file.
